This is why you reach for sweets at 3pm

If you give yourself a sugar high every afternoon – 3pm, every day, without fail – there’s no point berating yourself.

Despite those early morning and late evening pep talks – never mind all that meal planning – it looks like you’re (we’re) actually conditioned to reach for the doughnuts and dark chocolate after lunch. It’s science, Ok?

According to a new study published in the Elsevier Food Quality and Preference journal, researchers found that regardless of efforts to #StartTheDayRight, women actually see ‘unhealthy’ foods in a more positive light in the afternoon.

“Our findings showed a tendency to automatically think of unhealthy snack foods in a more positive manner as the day progressed, which previous research has shown to contribute to greater craving, desire, and ultimately, consumption of those foods,” Dr Ashleigh Haynes, a Flinders University psychology researcher, told the Daily Mail.

“This highlights that it might be especially important to implement strategies that replenish our capacity to control automatic responses, or limit the availability of unhealthy snack foods later in the day, when we tend to evaluate those foods more positively.”